568 



Till: STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



Siberia, . . . 

 Central Asia,. 



6,568,000 

 8,751,800 



146,796*600 



The largest towns are St. Petersburg. .V 

 Warsaw, Odessa, Lodz. Riga, Kielf. KharkofV. 

 and Tiflis. St. Petersburg and Moscow are the 

 capitals of the empire. European Russia con- 

 sists almost wholly of immense plains, the Val- 

 dai Hills, between St. Petersburg and Moscow, 

 ,ing 500 feet and never exceeding 1.1200 

 feet at>ove sea-level, forming the only elevated 

 region of the interior and an important water- 

 shed. The mountains include: the Caucasus, 

 running from the Black Sea to th Caspian, 

 reach to the height of 18,500 feet; the Urals, 

 stretching from the Caspian to the Arctic Ocean 

 and separating European from Asiatic Russia, 

 have their greatest height below 7,000 feet. 

 Beyond the Urals are the vast Siberian plains. 

 The whole of the vast empire is watered by 

 numerous rivers, some running a course of thou- 

 sands of miles. Altogether Russia and Poland 

 have 49,000 miles of navigable rivers. Asiatic 

 Russia has also a number of very large rivers, 

 as the Obi, Yenisei, and Lena in Siberia, and 

 the Amur toward the Chinese frontier. This 

 complete river system is of incalculable value 

 to Russia, as by its means internal communica- 

 tion is carried on. Canals connect the navi- 

 gable rivers, so as to form continuous water- 

 there being 500 miles of canals and 717 

 of canalized rivers. As may be expected from 

 its vastness, this empire offers soils and climates 

 of almost every variety. Extreme cold in win- 

 ter and extreme heat in summer, are, however, 

 a general characteristic of Russian climates. As 

 n-^ards soil, large sections of Russia are sandy, 

 barren wastes and vast morasses. The most 

 productive portion is that between the. Bal 

 and the Gulf of Finland, and the Volga, on the 

 north and east; Prussia, Austria, etc., on the 

 west; and the Black Sea on the south. It has, 

 generally speaking, a soft, black mold of great 

 depth, mostly on a sandy bottom, easily wrought, 

 and very fertile. The more southern portion of 

 Siberia, as far east as the river Lena, has, for 

 the most part, a fertile soil, and produces, not- 

 withstanding the severity of the climate, nearly 

 all kinds of grain. Boundless forests exist, the 

 area of the forest land in Europe being 42 per 

 cent: of the total area. The fir, larch, alder, 

 and birch predominate. Most of the forest land 

 is now under government control, and waste is 

 prevented. Agriculture remains the chief pur- 

 suit of the bulk of the population. For some 

 years it has, however, remained stationary, 

 while manufacturing industries are steadily go- 

 ing ahead. The chief crops are rye, wheat, bar- 

 ley, oats, hemp, flax, and tobacco. Vine and 

 beet culture is rapidly increasing, and the breed- 

 ing of horses and cattle is also extensively 

 carried on. Russia is rich in minerals. The 

 precious metals are chiefly obtained in the Ural 

 and Altai regions. The output for 1899 was. 

 gold, 1,072, 333 ounces; platinum, 12,339 pounds; 

 silver, 134,887 ounces. In the Ural, iron beds 

 are also rich and numerous, exceeding all others 

 in productiveness. Copper is most abundant in 

 the government of Perm; lead in the Ural and 



some parts of Poland; saltpeter in Astrakhan. 

 Of the coal mines those of the Don basin are 

 the principal at present, those of Kielce ranking 

 second: the mines around Moscow come next. 

 About liO.OOO tons of manganese ore are annu- 

 ally extracted in the I'ral and the Caucasus. 

 The petroleum wells of Baku on the Caspian 

 now send their products all over Europe. Prior 

 to the accession of Peter the Great, Russia had 

 no manufactures; he started them, and under 

 the more or less fostering care of his successors 

 and Russia's protective policy they have stead- 

 ily grown. The latest statistics give a total of 

 about 1,400,000 persons as being employed in 

 the various manufacturing industries. Two- 

 fifths of the entire production comes from the 

 two capitals, St. Petersburg and Moscow. The 

 various manufactures rank approximately as 

 follows: spirits, sugar, cottons and yarns, flour, 

 tobacco, foundry products, flax, yarn, and linen, 

 leather, woolen cloth and yarn, iron, machinery, 

 beer, soap, timber, paper, oil, glass, chemicals, 

 and agricultural implements. The bulk of Rus- 

 sia's external trade is carried on through the Eu- 

 ropean frontier and the Baltic and Black Sea ports. 

 The chief exports are: grain (about one-half of 

 entire exports), flax, linseed, and other oleagi- 

 nous seeds, timber, hemp, wool, butter and eggs, 

 spirits, bristles, and furs, in the order indicated. 

 The chief imports are cotton, wool, tea, machin- 

 ery, coal and coke, cotton yarn, metal goods, 

 wine, olive oil, raw silk, herrings, textile goods, 

 fruit, coffee, tobacco. The import trade is 

 heaviest with Germany, Great Britain, France, 

 Austria-Hungary, and Belgium, in the order 

 named. In the export trade Great Britain takes 

 the lead, Holland, France, and Germany fol- 

 lowing. 



San Francisco, the most important city 

 of California, and the principal emporium of the 

 Pacific Coast of America, is situated on San Fran- 

 cisco Bay. The bay, which is fifty miles long 

 by five miles wide, makes one of the grandest 

 harbors in the world, and the principal one on the 

 Pacific coast. The mean altitude is 130 feet 

 above the sea. The city is served by an exten- 

 sive waterworks system. The reservoirs have 

 a storage capacity of 100,000,000 gallons, and 

 the consumption averages 30,000,000 gallons per 

 day. There are in all 750 miles of streets, of 

 which 192 miles are paved. The sewer system 

 covers 308 miles, and the annual cost of main- 

 taining the city government exceeds $5,700,000. 

 The Golden Gate Park, named after the popular 

 name of the entrance to San Francisco Bay, is 

 the most important park in the city, comprising 

 1,043 acres. It extends from the city to the 

 ocean. About half of it is beautifully laid out 

 in promenades, drives, lawns, etc. ' It was here 

 that the Midwinter Exposition was held in 1894. 

 The park contains a magnificent conservatory, 

 and monuments of Francis Scott Key, author of 

 "The Star-Spangled Banner," President Gar- 

 field, General Halleck, and Thomas Starr King. 

 Hill Park, lying a half mile east of Golden Gate 

 Park, affords a fine view from its highest point, 

 which is 570 feet above the sea. The Presidio, or 

 Government Military Reservation, exteijds along^ 

 the Golden Gate for about four miles, and has an 

 area of 1,500 acres. The city proper was almost 



